book :: Knutson, K., Crowley, K. ((in press)). Connecting with Art: How families talk about art in a museum setting. In M. K. Stein, L. Kucan (Eds.), Instructional Explanations in the Disciplines. New York: Springer.

last updated: 2010-02-03 13:57:32

Abstract

How do families talk about art in the galleries of art museums? We propose a new approach to conceptualizing art learning in museums and specifically test the role of family room experiences on promoting powerful learning talk in galleries. Fifty parents with children between 8 and 11 years old participated in two conditions. Gallery-only families were recorded as they visited and talked about four objects in the galleries: a narrative painting, a landscape painting, a figural sculpture, and a decorative arts object. Discovery-room families were recorded as they visited two family room coves (in a family space designed to help families have hands-on experiences with art) and two related gallery objects (a narrative painting and decorative arts object). Findings suggest that the discovery room did have impacts on gallery talk, but that the impacts depended on the art object. Learning talk at the decorative art object was increased, while it was depressed for the narrative painting. Findings have implications for how experiences are supported in art museums. A model for categorizing art content knowledge talk is presented.

Keywords	art,learning,museum
Publisher URL	http://www.springer.com/education/teachers+%26+teaching/book/978-1-4419-0593-2

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